Learning to paint and draw

D1 A5: Exercise: 3 amigos (Opie style)

As a practice study to prepare for my final assignment I did a Julian Opie (http://www.julianopie.com/) style painting of a photo of three lads. I chose this style because although it looks deceptively simple, it takes great attention to the positioning of features and shapes to capture a recognisable likeness from so little information. It is something I’ve wanted to play with ever since I saw Opie’s portraits of Blur at Tate Britain.

As well as the challenge of producing a likeness I also wanted to try to get a sense of depth – again from relati8vely little information. I used a few techniques. The position of the warm yellow, the thickness of the line, and subtly changing the tone according to distance.

The subject – three lads about to get up to mischief – was fitting of the playful, comic/cartoon-like style.

Overall I was really pleased. I was a little out on the symmetry of the faces of the two outer boys. In a more detailed picture that wouldn’t have mattered or even been apparent. With this style, it is noticeable, however. The right hand of the boy on the left is also not quite right.